Do you prefer talking about people -- or discussing ideas? For example, if you had a choice between chatting with your coworker about her neighbor's friend's cousin, or conversing about something more substantive -- say, human behavior, the future of the U.S. under Donald Trump, or research-backed ways to lose weight -- which would you choose? As you can probably guess, I strongly favor the latter. When it comes to people-centered conversations, I become very bored after a while unless the conversation concerns something impressive the subject has done (e.g., graduate with honors or start his own business). I find the most compelling conversations to be those I can (1) relate to, and (2) ultimately learn something from. For example, if I were looking to sell my property, I would take great interest in a friend's drawn-out speech on everything her sister went through to sell her townhouse. If I were looking to buy new tires for my car, I'd listen attentively to...

How might your decisions be different? How might your life be different? Well, perhaps you would dump the guy you're dating after seeing he would eventually cheat on you. You might change jobs after noticing that your boss would gradually become abusive toward you, or change careers after seeing all the jobs in your current field would require upwards of 50 hours per week. Maybe you would not have kids upon discovering he or she would be born with an illness. Or perhaps you'd opt to move to a different neighborhood upon discovering your present one will see a rash of robberies in the coming years. Since we can't see into the future, it's impossible for us to always make optimal decisions. The best we can do is plan ahead and think carefully before making a big decision. Even then, what seems like a well-conceived decision today could turn out to be a disaster later on. The problem is that far too many people make decisions on impulse -- without at least consi...